S.M.A.R.T. KRAV MAGA - Key Persons

Amnon Darsa is undeniably one of the leading Krav Maga intructors in the world today. Expert 5, he began Krav Maga training when he was only thirteen years old, and, from 1988, he was the protégé of Eyal Yanilov, the closest and most reliable student of Imi Lichtenfeld. Before creating S.M.A.R.T. Krav Maga, Amnon spent decades working with different organizations: The International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF); Krav Maga Global and two years as the head and co-founder of Krav Maga Core. Being the global leading instructor in these three organizations, he developed unparalleled expertise in all sectors of Krav Maga, with a special focus on the military field, law enforcement, special weapon and training , as well as close protection training. Amnon is also an advanced driving instructor, Master RKC kettlebells instructor and Ground Force Method instructor.

Imi Lichtenfeld was born in Budapest and grew up in Bratislava. His father, Samuel Lichtenfeld, was an exceptional figure and had an immense influence on Imi's life. For 20 years his father performed in wrestling, weightlifting and was a circus acrobat. At the end of his circus career, Samuel opened a wrestling club and joined the police force and became the Chief Instructor of the detective unit. In this time, he caught and brought to justice many murderers and criminals. Amongst many other things, he was an educator that trained his police unit self-defense techniques on violence and control with emphasis on ethics. Imi, who excelled in swimming abandoned this field in favor of gymnastics, wrestling and boxing. In 1928, he won Slovakia youth boxing championship and in 1929 he won the wrestling and gymnastics for adults. The next decade Imi continued his focus on wrestling and participated in many international events and won dozens of awards and medals including a victory in the competition held in Palestine Maccabiah Wrestling.